In PARIS, JE T'AIME, celebrated directors such as Wes Craven,
the Coen Brothers, Gus Van Sant, Gurinder Chadha, Walter Salles,
Alexander Payne, Frederic Auburtin and Olivier Assayas, have
come together to show Paris in a way never before imagined.
Through a kaleidoscope of stories about joy, separation, unexpected
strange encounters and of course -- love -- their
films capture both the reality of contemporary Paris as well
as the enchantment one feels as a visitor.Movie
Review:

In an attempt to bridge the artistic visions of 18 internationally
diverse directors, each successful in their own right, “Paris,
je t’aime” (or “Paris, I Love You”)
becomes a self-sufficient omnibus that does not need to be
held together by a consistent narrative. Especially with a
stellar cast that includes Fanny Ardant, Maggie Gyllenhaal,
Elijah Wood, and Juliette Binoche et al. Bracketed by the
timeless and magical appeal of Paris, it effuses itself with
a searing sense of perception by its native directorial pool
and an effervescent espousal by the outsiders who have embraced
Paris’s tapestry of cultures.

Set
around 18 neighbourhoods in Paris, each 5-minute segment begins
with an intertitle with both the district and director’s
names superimposed over a shot of the area. It’s a simple
and effective introduction for each of the vignettes that
segues the last shot of a story as the corresponding story’s
establishing shot. There’s a discernable effort to cement
each vignette into a continuous and functional narrative that
ends up tenuous and forgettable. But what sticks is the raison
d'être of a cinematic effort of this magnitude, which
is simply to explore the multitudes of Paris’s most
famous export – Love.

Never
mind the romance. Different facets of love are given its fair
share of discovery. Love found, love lost, parental love,
love born out of guilt, unresolved love, obsessive love, unrequited
love, love at first sight, floundering love etc. are all described
hauntingly, poetically and at times downright amusingly, all
through each director’s idiosyncrasies. There’s
no singular establishing tone or mood that is funnelled throughout
the entire film. “Paris, je t’aime” is much
more than a sum of its parts. Each segment is given the director’s
own treatment, indeed it’s plain to see that each luminary
had been given carte blanche to create the instalment of their
choice with the overriding criterion that it has to be set
in their respective districts.

With
varied focuses and styles on display, there are decidedly
earnest segments that fall short when propped against its
more flamboyant and visually stimulating counterparts, but
in the end all are agreeable and piquant in the idealism that
fuels each effort. The film stutters along in Bruno Podalydès’
opening but steadily picks up steam as Gurinder Chadha’s
sensitive but cursory multi-cultural love story kicks in.
The crescendo reaches its peak early on with Walter Sills
and Daniela Thomas’s ‘Loin du 16e’ that
crosses political and social lines to a powerfully rendered
exposé of childcare and economic trappings of immigrant
life. It then soldiers on to Sylvain Chomet’s (of “The
Triplets of Belleville” fame) ‘Tour Eiffel’,
a live-action love story between mimes. He imbues his story
with the imaginative animated characters and exaggerated Parisian
attributes of his surroundings.

Of
course, there are also shorts that seem to be more about the
director’s style and exercises in facetious techniques
rather than emoting a genuine feel of the city’s spirit.
Notably, Alfonso Cuaron’s 5-minute long take of a sidewalk
conversation ambiguously held between an older man and a young
French woman, Tom Tykwer’s return to his frenetic style
seen in “Lola Rennt” and Vincenzo Natali’s
surreal vampiric tale replete with ensuing comic book imagery.

Would
the film have benefited more from the participation of several
other masters? Undoubtedly. There seems a gaping, untenable
hole that screams out for the input of France’s Eric
Rohmer or Jean-Luc Godard but considering that plans are already
in motion for segments to be filmed in New York and Tokyo,
there’s plenty of hope left that other directors from
around the world will be apart of this anthology.